Tom Lemke - Cped MC, Cped C from "The Foot Lab" Weighs in on the topic.....

There is always a whole lot of discussion about this when a group of Pedorthists get togther and Oooooooh.....I just get all giddy about barefoot running, I really, really love it, BUT there is a whole lot of prepping that has to happen before someone starts running barefoot.

If you've been running for years and are thinking of running barefoot (with or without barefoot runners) you need to treat it like you're a brand new runner, GO SLOW, take all the time in the world to work into it as slowly as you can. You may be the one in a billion that can go straight into it and have no issues but it's highly unlikely.

There was a Russian Olympic running coach that wouldn't let anyone run even one kilometer until they had worked on the ladder - they would have to jump barefoot onto the concrete floor starting from the bottom rung and work their way up step by step until they were 15 feet up! That's right jump barefoot from 15 feet up onto a concrete floor and do it with no pain - absolutely brilliant!

And that was before they went running in shoes! Never mind running barefoot! It is totally doable and would be even more fun than running with shoes but you would really, really have get your feet ready with lots and lots of strengthening exercises and not too fast. Another issue is running barefoot in Canada means running in the ice and snow.....not really feasable, moccasins or something similar would be the perfect choice to solve that problem.

You could even wear just 2 or 3 pairs of wool socks to keep out the cold. Loving the north!

Tom Lemke has been making custom footwear for Canadians for over 30 years.